How a day where you wake at 4:30AM can be a good day? Well, not by driving three hours by bus to Hangzhou. Still, we were all excited by the fact we would FINALLY play our first “official” friendly matches of the season. The problem was that we arrived at Hangzhou 9:20AM (25 minutes late since the bus driver got lost) and we would play only around 12:30PM. Kyra is still recovering from her super mild concussion, Phoebe had to travel to Japan with her family and Suh-Young disappeared. Lily came with us to help filming which was awesome dedication to the team considering she still recovering from the ankle injury.

Our first match was against the only team that we had lost a match last year so we were really eager to give our best to win. We watched them playing against Hangzhou and we could see their skilful #10 was still in the team. She was the one that last year scored the two goals of their team and made the difference. I reminded them that we could not feel accommodated by what we were watching against HIS. We did last year and we lost.

The starting lineup was: Bella as goalie, Mikayla and Tehillah defending, Inês center midfield, Alice on the left and Alva on the right midfield and Franziska as striker. We started pressuring since the beginning and I’ve asked Inês to take special attention on #10. We kept most of the control of the ball in the first ball but we were not shooting that much. Their #10 was trapped in a solid midfield defensive system where Inês, Mikayla and Tehillah were guarding her. Around 10 minutes into the first half she finally manages to break through our system but our happy Dutch defender came to rescue and stole the ball from her. Tehillah more and more shows good positioning and skills as defender.

Our first shot at the goal was with Inês one minute later and it went out of bounds but at least we started keeping the ball on the field. at 13 minutes a great counter-attack where Franziska pushed from the right and crossed to Alva. The passing in the midfield seems to be working fine between Inês, Alva and Franziska. Today Alice was having a hard time to adapt to the field and the ball was bouncing off her so she could not show her amazing ball control.

After insisting so much, finally we broke through their defensive system. Alva passed from the right to Franziska inside the box on the left side. She attracted the defenders and served Inês a perfect pass. With the inside part of her right foot, she shot a nice medium high ball on the right side of the goal. First goal of the season at 14 minutes of the first half. After the goal, not much happened. We kept much of the ball control and we ended the first half with Sinead on the left, Hailey on the right midfield and Greta defending with Mikayla.

We started the second half with the same team that finished the first. As soon as it started, Franziska got the ball and pushed forward but shot it out of bounds. This was our way of showing that we would keep pressuring, 1 goal was not enough. Also in our favour was the fact that their #10 did not return for the 2nd half. I think she was injured or something similar. Of course not having her, the ball control of SCIS Pudong was  not the same.

Hailey was constantly fighting for the ball in the offensive side of the field and had great chances. Franziska as distributing the ball both to Sinead and to Hailey as a pivot holding a defender but still we were not shooting enough at goal. Without shooting at goal, guess what? We will never score. Hailey was trying hard and she had three good opportunities and one of them was almost in the small box but the ball went over the crossbar. We need to practice ad-nauseam how to shoot using the inside part of the foot. I know it’s not as powerful but at least will go into the direction of the goal.

With Alva, Alice and Franziska back in the field, the pressure was on and then, our German Panzer finally decided to go full pressure individually on the defenders. After a Pudong throw in around the 45 minutes into the game, Mikayla deflected the ball and Franziska, with her super fashion fancy new cleats with stars and galaxies printed on it, forced her way between two defender and fought for a ball with the goalie and voilá; 2 x 0.

After that Franziska had one more good chance where their goalie defended well and Alva was all alone, pushed the ball forward but…. did not shoot. I cannot complain about the team. The second half it was virtually attackers vs defenders. Bella barely touched the ball and Pudong did not shoot a single ball at the goal so that means we did our job neutralising their attack. I am happy with the team and we are on the right track. In this match our German Panzer, or maybe called from now on Franny Skywalker (due to her fancy new cleats) was amazing!

Goals: Inês, Franziska
Assists: Franziska
MVP of the match: Franziska

P.S: I had only slept 3 hours from Friday to Saturday and now it’s 12:42AM Sunday and what kept me going were the hilarious comments and sing-along that Lily left on the video, while taping our matches. We all from the football team thanks Lily for her effort. Even with her sprained ankle she was there helping in the blistering cold and rainy day. Obrigado, Lily!